April 30, 2012

The Obama campaign apparently didn't look backwards into history when selecting its new campaign slogan, "Forward" — a word with a long and rich association with European Marxism.

Many Communist and radical publications and entities throughout the 19th and 20th centuries had the name "Forward!" or its foreign cognates....

The slogan "Forward!" reflected the conviction of European Marxists and radicals that their movements reflected the march of history, which would move forward past capitalism and into socialism and communism.

What?! "Forward" is the Wisconsin state motto, and I've heard it used over and over again by politicians. The origin of the motto goes back to 1848 — "a chance encounter in New York City between Gov. Nelson Dewey and Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Edward Ryan."

Dewey asked University of Wisconsin chancellor John Lathrop to design [an official state seal]. Lathrop delivered a sketch inspired by European heraldry that repeated Wisconsin Territory's Latin motto, "Civilitas Successit Barbaruin" ("Civilization Succeeds Barbarism"). Dewey took this to New York to be cast in metal.

While there, he ran into Milwaukee attorney Edward Ryan. Both were plain-spoken, no-nonsense characters and neither of them liked the fancy Lathrop design with its pretentious Latin maxim. So they sat down on the steps of a Wall Street bank and redrew the state's official seal themselves.

Ryan suggested that it repeat New York's motto, "Excelsior," but Dewey refused. They toyed with "Upward" and "Onward" before settling finally on "Forward."

By the way, "The Communist Manifesto" was first published in 1848, a cute coincidence, but I doubt it had much to do with the Dewey-Ryan confabulation.

Anyway, if this motto is embarrassing to Obama, he's free to switch it to "Civilization Succeeds Barbarism."

113 comments:

The fact that he's a marxist at this point is irrelevant. We know what he is. The fact that he continually tries to hide it in his political policies is what is at the core of why he's was never qualified to hold the office of POTUS to begin with.

1848 was quite a year. It was called "the springtime of the revolutions" which saw all of continental Europen Monarchies have revolutions that spread to the South American colonies of the European Monarchies.

The Marxists opposed these Bourgeois revolutions that only demanded some reforms and stopped short of the full Marxist march into a Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

The Obama Boys are dedicated to restarting a Springtime of Revolutions everywhere. It is inevitable, since the economy is headed into depression.

The lesson to be learned is that a peaceful accomodation to a crowd of citizens in revolt actually stops Marxism. Ergo we need as many Chief Charles Tubbs as we can find.

I wondered why the Progressives got Tubbs removed from his post. Now I understand it.

It could be coincidence. Forward is a nice slogan. Its ties to socialism/Marxism make it only slightly toxic. I'm sure Obama & Co. doesn't think it's a problem. He's been getting away with being openly Marxist for a long time.

On the one hand, I can see his campaign realizing the communist associations and thinking it great fun to offer it up to the ignorant masses. On the other hand, there are only so many words that connote 'making things better.' (Better in the progressive liberal sense, of course.)

We also won the Mexican War (tg opposed that one, too), doubling the size of the country.

Most of the people who say, "Forward", want to go backward on that one.

Are you referring to La Raza, which would like California back ?

Them, too, Senor, but I really meant all the guilt-ridden Lefty gringos who tie themselves in knots telling us things like calling someone who enters the country illegally an illegal alien robs them of their humanity and is, surprise!, raaaacisst.

If I look at an Irishman who's here illegally (and there are a good many, we're told) and call him an illegal alien, is that racist?

Sweetheart, I know where I am, and I know where I'm going. It's straight ahead. Why don't you just close you eyes and listen to my Ipod. It has all my speeches on it. See, right there is the sign Grand Canyon Viewing Platfoooooooooorrrrr.

Marx taking refuge in London and the Forty-Eighters fleeing on threat of death to the Americas does not make the Forty-Eighters necessarily communist. Das Kapital was written after the Civil War and in large measure it reflects the outcome of that struggle. Capital in the American South was a euphemism for slaves.

All the MSNBC personalities, whoever they are, leaning forward. Are they falling? No, they are suspended at an angle. How much of an angle? Forty five degrees? Less? More? Do they walk like this, in this diagonal world? Or is it not diagonal at all? Are they bent at the waist, heads up, bottoms out, leaning forward in anticipation?

Reactionaries pick certain milieus which they find emotionally pleasing and try to force current society into those molds.

Right now politics is driven on both sides by reactionaries; the only real difference is which frame of reference the knees jerk within.

I've got no problem with honest conservatives or honest progressives; I do have problems with cretins who will spout defenses of their "side" when their "side" is selling their purported values down the creek.

In fact TubbsGate is still in the design stage. Why did this good peace maker agree to vacate the job of crowd control? What does J. Edgar Meade have on him? Has anyone seen his American birth certificate?

Do you want to hear yhe latest ones about Scot Walker? Those are hot sellers this week and will cost you twice the amount that Althouse charges per comment made.

Which reminds me, did you hear the rumor that before the 5 conservative Justices would agree to debate the Arizona immigration enforcement law with her they demanded to see Sonia Sotomayor's papers.

Obama's seal is a communist symbolism - new dawn, i.e. communism is a new dawn for the whole of humanity. And if you doubt me look at this communist group: http://www.facebook.com/people/New-Dawn/100001719640516

As for "Forward " publications, it's no secret that majority of these were sponsored by the KGB subversion program, the one in charge of the export of the communist revolution to the West.

However, I don't think 'forward' is a good slogan for Obama. It will be interesting to watch how people can play with it - Forward to bigger government! ... to higher taxes! ... to more Solyndras, etc.

Fact is, there is no 'forward-thinking' from progressives. Got that Allie? What you apparently believe in terms of your progressivism is nothing more that reconstituted hackneyed failed redistributionist socialism.

Either all men are created equal, or they are not. All men have inalienable rights given by our creator (NOT government), or they do not. And governments derive their power from the consent of the governed, or they do not.

There is NO advance ('forward') beyond these propositions. So, your attempts to nuance and finesse ideas beyond these is a historical about-face, i.e. an attempt to collect power for elites.

Actually, the Lefties haven't had a new idea since Roosevelt. When they try to castigate Conservatives by quoting Einstein that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a new result, all they're doing is projecting.

Forward is a nice slogan. Its ties to socialism/Marxism make it only slightly toxic. I'm sure Obama & Co. doesn't think it's a problem. He's been getting away with being openly Marxist for a long time.

What I find interesting is that the Democrats feel a need to declare their ideological direction is "forward". If their policies actually moved the country forward, it would be demonstrable. But their policies don't, hence their need to make such an assertion.

Its similar to how the Dems always feel a need to remind us they are "smart". Or like the beta-male with a small penis boasting at every opportunity that he's really hung like a horse.

If Dem policies actually moved us "forward", they wouldn't need to adopt a slogan to prop up that perception. It would be self-evident.

Robert Cook: The "fact" that he's a Marxist is not a fact at all, but the willful lie of those successfully manipulating little minds

Its not an unreasonable argument. Obama's foundation is from Marxist prfoessors. The Black Liberation Theology from his church and pastor is marxist. He resdistributionist schemes (along with his energy policy) are marxist.

You're can argue that he's not a Marxist. But to declare that its a flat out lie is dishonest of you.

Didn't anyone google this? These people could screw up a one car funeral.

Conservatives need a way to say "SHHHH. NOBODY SAY ANYTHING UNTIL THEY GET ALL THEIR MERCH PRODUCED!!" to each other without Team Obama finding out. I supposed if we circulated codes within copies of the Constitution, there's very little chance anyone in the administration will look into it.

Scott M, I like your thinking. But we'll need to avoid the commerce clause and a few places that have become popular reading lately. We should be able to put the entire Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy Manifesto right in the second amendment without fear of discovery.

Just another cliche' of the left. So if 'forward' is the best they can come up with, this tells us they really have nothing except the march towards central command and control that is in evidence.

Its more vacuous than 'hope', and runs parallel with 'change'.

Sloganeering is a sorry substitute for results that shout 'American'. None of what this group of radicals has forged has any resemblance to a uniquely American ideal. On the contrary, its a roll back. And if you deny, you are ignorant of your history.

Bob Dylan said;Well, I was feelin’ sad and feelin’ blueI didn’t know what in the world I wus gonna doThem Communists they wus comin’ aroundThey wus in the airThey wus on the groundThey wouldn’t gimme no peace . . .

I'm surprised that no one has yet alluded to the more direct historical connection to Socialist/Fascist slogans. "Forward" (Avanti in Italian) was the name of the Italian Socialist Party's newsletter in the 1930s whose long-time editor was none other than one Benito Mussolini, a card-carrying socialist. Either Obama et al are supremely ignorant of history or they don't care--indeed may be proud of the association--as was famously said: "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." There is no little savage irony in the fact that the most fascistic US Administration in history, waist-deep in corporatist crony-capitalism, would associate itself with a slogan used by the mother of all corporatist, Fascist parties.

Wisconsin itself has a long history with socialism (Stalin over Wisconsin: The Making and Unmaking of Militant Unionism, 1900-1950 ), so its use of "Forward" is of a piece.

Wisconsin's use of Forward pre-dates Socialism, however.

Like so many things, someone else saw that Wisconsin was doing things right and appropriated a phrase closely related to Wisconsin. You'll notice Socialism does not use Star of the North or Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.

Forward”) was the central organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany published daily in Berlin from 1891 to 1933 by decision of the party’s Halle Congress, as the successor of Berliner Volksblatt, founded in 1884.

Friedrich Engels and Kurt Tucholsky both wrote for Vorwärts. It backed the Russian Marxist economists and then, after the split in the Party, the Mensheviks. It published articles by Leon Trotsky...

As a resident of the most socialist state in the union,(we are actually a Commonwealth) I have no problem stating Zero is a Marxist of the African(continent, not color) type.

What program does Zero support that couldn't come from an Amin dictatorship, or whatever you call the Selazi(sp?) thugocracy? I see a variation of degree, Barry hasn't executed anyone summarily, yet. But truthfully, I want one of you lib's to tell me, what position does he hold that is different?

Redistribution of wealth? Especially into the hands of his buddies.Greening of the economy? Except where it influences his own life.Using a secret police to hold down disent? I don't know what else you could call those tattletale sites he introduces every new quarter.Printing money to monetize the debt? Do you really want to talk about QE 1,2,3,4...Racial policies? Wanna ask George Zimmerman about his treatment as compared to the New Blank Panther Party? Or the policeman with the Harvard guy(I won't honor him with calling him a professor).

Shall I go on? It's not difficult.

High taxes on your enemies (Have you seen what they've done to the Teaparties as compared to the OWS?)

How any American can defend this guy shows just how far down the rabbithole America has fallen.

I loved looking into the history of our own state's Miss Forward statue (some think she is on the Capitol Dome but she has been housed in the Wisconsin Historical Society since 1995). I just love the story - a female sculptor - Jean Pond Miner - for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

I'm kind of glad they housed her at the Historical Society so she wasn't abused in the same way so may Capitol ground statues and monuments were last year.

Methadras said... "The fact that he's a marxist at this point is irrelevant."

You missed the point. But I think regardless of the facts, this could be exploited as pundit status on Fox.

The fact that I made this statement is directly why I didn't miss the point. He would have had to approve the slogan himself. It didn't occur in a vacuum or otherwise they would be changing it as we speak. They are not. They know what it means, they know how to use marxist propaganda to full effect. They know what they are doing. But as I said prior, it is ultimately irrelevant because Urkle will simply wave his hand in dismissal at such an accusation, while he politically verifies time and time again that he is in action as well as in policy.